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Recently, Liu Qingfeng, deputy to the National People’s Congress and chairman of iFLYTEK, submitted five written proposals to the National People’s Congress, covering hot issues such as smart education, public health, smart office, and private colleges and universities. In the process, artificial intelligence technology is actively used to promote teachers and students to reduce burden and increase efficiency, and establish a national model.

With the advantages of national policies, rich application scenarios, and pursuit of social capital, smart education has become the “blue ocean” in the fields of 5G+ and AI+.

In recent years, the market scale of my country’s smart education industry has continued to expand. Large-scale industry research institutions predicted at the beginning of this year that the market size of my country’s smart education industry will reach 723.06 billion yuan in 2020. By 2022, the size of my country’s smart education market will exceed the trillion yuan mark, with broad prospects.

What is smart education? It is believed that the answer of many ordinary consumers is: students can go to class by clicking on the APP, and teachers can assign and correct homework in front of a computer or tablet through the internet. This is the simplest and most intuitive “smart classroom”.

The case shows that the intelligent correction technology has achieved good results in the correction and quality inspection of subjective questions such as grades 4 and 6, composition for the middle and high school entrance examinations, etc. When applied to teachers’ daily homework correction, the time can be reduced by 50% to 70%, making teachers from heavy, It is possible to be freed from mechanical and repetitive homework corrections, to focus more on teaching and research, and to pay attention to students’ personality growth. Through handwriting recognition technology combined with automatic correction, knowledge map and other technologies, it is possible to record students’ learning data without changing students’ paper writing habits, and accurately analyze each student’s weaknesses to make personalized homework assignments, so that students’ skills Invalid repetitive operation time is reduced by more than 50% to reduce the burden.

The previously issued “Education Informatization 2.0 Action Plan” (referred to as the “Plan”) mentioned that through the implementation of the Education Informatization 2.0 Action Plan, by 2022, the development goals of “three comprehensives, two highs and one large” will be basically achieved. The “Plan” pointed out that based on emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and the Internet of Things, we will promote the model change and ecological reconstruction of education supported by new technologies.

Artificial intelligence promotes balanced development of education

Liu Qingfeng believes that in the process of promoting the education informatization 2.0 action plan, artificial intelligence technology should be actively used to promote teachers and students to reduce the burden and increase efficiency, and establish a national model. Promote the application of artificial intelligence technology in the construction of the National Smart Education Demonstration Zone, and organize national observation meetings and on-site meetings in a timely manner in areas with significant results. He suggested to increase investment in new infrastructure in the field of education, and include artificial intelligence to promote the balanced development of education, reduce the burden on teachers and students, and teach students in accordance with their aptitude as a major project for new infrastructure construction.

Not only AI companies such as iFlytek, but also many software and hardware companies, Internet “giants”, operators, and startups are aiming to enter the “track” of smart education.

All media reporters have learned that since the official issuance of 5G commercial licenses last year, operators have accelerated the application of 5G+ classroom scenarios. For example, Guangzhou Mobile and Guangwai have jointly built 5G smart universities, using 5G transmission to achieve remote simultaneous interpretation. During the epidemic, Guangya Middle School, Guangdong Experimental Middle School and other third graders adopted the artificial intelligence online course system to carry out teaching.

Guangya Middle School stated that in order to make up for the lack of online self-learning, the school will use information tools such as smart classroom smart tablets, Zhixue.com APP, and web pages to provide learning resources for students. Auxiliary means such as submission and review, online live teaching and Q&A for senior three graduating class, give full play to the advantages of the Internet, and ensure the quality of students’ online learning.

Institutional analysis pointed out that with the continuous development of “Internet + education”, AI + education, VR/AR + education, etc. have been further promoted. In the process of promoting education informatization, technology giants have entered the market one after another to actively deploy smart education.

There are many problems to be solved in smart education

During the epidemic, many families quickly contacted and started online learning, but at the same time, some parents encountered “embarrassment”. All media reporters learned that for smart education with a certain threshold, on the one hand, some families need to repurchase equipment and hardware. On the other hand, parents and children need to invest time and cost to learn how to use some online software and APPs.

Issues such as hardware equipment investment, learning costs, software design talents, and student health are all issues that need to be resolved urgently in the current industry development. A programming teacher from a local primary school told reporters, “The school offers programming classes, and many parents have such a tangle. Learning programming is good for children’s thinking training, but they are worried about affecting their eyesight when facing the tablet for a long time.”

Some schools that carry out smart education projects install software to prohibit students from downloading apps without permission because they are worried that students will play games and bad information will have a negative impact on children. To a certain extent, it has led to the “smart classroom”, which has changed back to the traditional “computer classroom” in the past.

It is worth noting that as of 2019, the first-tier cities Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen lead the education industry sector. To this end, institutional analysis pointed out that in terms of breadth, the scope of the construction of smart campuses still needs to be expanded. From the realization of comprehensive coverage of higher education institutions to promotion to primary and secondary schools, it has developed from first-tier cities to second- and third-tier cities. In terms of depth, the technical depth of smart campus still needs to be explored and broken through.

In terms of smart education models, making classrooms more intelligent through technical means, improving teaching efficiency, and truly meeting educational needs are the key exploration directions for future smart classrooms. This requires companies to jointly explore technology and hardware facilities, relevant government departments in supervision and support, and schools in teaching models.